Tuesday, January 5, 2010

1989 Star Nova - Orel Hershiser

One of the things that I'm trying to focus on is getting my player collections organized. To me, that means knowing what I have and what I need. To do this, I using a few tools. The 2009 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards is now in my possession, thanks to no one else wanting to bid on it on the ebay. I got some birthday money and decided to buy it. I think it came delivered for about $16. I already had the 2008 edition, but it will soon be making its way to Arizona to grace my father's bookshelves.

One thing that I like about the 2009 edition is that it came with a DVD that has the whole catalog in a .pdf file. I'm able to quickly search for a player and then highlight it, or add a note. I've already found a few Hershisers in there that I didn't know existed.

Another tool I'm using is Zistle. It is a card organizing site. And more. You can chat, visit the forum, share your box breaks, organize your cards and trade them. Users help build the site by adding their cards, checklists and scans. It might seem a bit labor intensive, but I think that there is some automation going on behind the scenes and CheckOutMyCards is providing a lot of the data and scans. I haven't asked a lot of detailed questions of Josh and Ashley (the creators), but I know that they've been hard at work on it for many months. One of the things that I like about Zistle is the openness and warm welcome that I've received from Josh and Ashley. I've made some suggestions and asked some questions as to why things are done in a certain way and they always reply and give solid reasons. They're open to listen and make changes for improvement.

So, how do I increase my Hershiser collection? Mostly it has been ebay, with a few bloggers tossing some cards my way. The problem is that there are a finite number of cards and I've got most of them. No, there are still quite a few that I don't have. Many relic and autos. A few oddball types (Mother's Cookies - I've got one). And those silly manufactured short runs. You know the kind. Where it is the same card as the regular run, but then they put some silver foil on it, give it a new name and number them 1 of 9, 2 of 9, etc, etc. Knuckle-heads.

Below is the 1988-89 Star Nova Edition cards of Orel Hershiser. They are numbered 62 through 74.

Other players in this set are Mike Greenwell, Darryl Strawberry, Don Mattingly, Eric Davis, Jose Canseco, Sandy Alomar Jr., Kirby Puckett, Wade Boggs, Rickey Henderson, Will Clark, Bo Jackson, Ken Griffey Jr., Mike Schmidt, Gary Sheffield, Cal Ripken Jr. and Ryne Sandberg. A few Hall of Famers in there. There are also promo cards for each player. Production numbers are at 500 sets total and 40 promo cards per player.

Other Star cards from this time that Orel is part of are the Star Cards, Ad Cards, Gold Edition and Platinum Edition. I don't have the Ad Cards. Yet.

Yes, I know that was a lot of cards to show. Especially of one player. But, I thought that Greg would enjoy it. I know that I did. I'll be showing the Star Cards and Platinum Edition cards in the coming weeks.